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class="header"> <b><font size="+2"><a
href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35907-my-son-was-beautiful-palestinian-bodies-and-the-truths-that-do-not-reach-us"
id="reader-domain" class="domain">''My Son Was
Beautiful'': Palestinian Bodies and the Truths That Do Not
Reach Us</a></font></b>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits"><br>
Susie Day - May 5, 2016<br>
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<p><span class="wf_caption"><font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35907-my-son-was-beautiful-palestinian-bodies-and-the-truths-that-do-not-reach-us">http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35907-my-son-was-beautiful-palestinian-bodies-and-the-truths-that-do-not-reach-us</a></font><br>
<span></span></span></p>
<p>On October 13, 2015, news media reported two
Palestinian men entering a No. 78 bus in the Armon
Hanatziv district of East Jerusalem, then fatally
stabbing and shooting two Israeli citizens. One of the
alleged attackers, Bahaa Allyan, 22, was shot dead by
Israeli police; the other, Bilal Ghanem, 23, was shot
and remains in custody. The attack happened during what
some have termed the Third Intifada, whose epicenter is
Jerusalem, where the Palestinian <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.acri.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/EJ-Facts-and-Figures-2015.pdf">poverty
rate</a> is over 75 percent.</p>
<p>On October 15, 2015, TIME magazine published an <a
target="_blank"
href="http://time.com/4075829/palestinians-violence-terrorism-israel/">article</a>
titled, "The Desperation Driving Young Palestinians to
Violence," which describes the anger of young
Palestinians whose families "pay taxes like Israeli
residents, but receive comparatively few services." The
article opened by describing Bahaa Allyan: "On Tuesday,
Allyan, a graphic designer from the predominantly
Palestinian neighborhood Jabel Mukaber, was killed by
Israeli security forces after allegedly trying to carry
out an attack in Jerusalem."</p>
<p>Within days, an Israeli <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=32515">nongovernmental
organization</a>, followed a few months later by
Israel's <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-blasts-time-magazines-depiction-of-terrorist-as-victim/">Government
Press Office</a>, denounced TIME for "humanizing the
attacker." They demanded that TIME publish the names of
the Israelis killed and assert -- not "allege" -- that
Allyan did not "try," but had, in fact, carried out the
attack. TIME did not immediately respond.</p>
<p>Late in October, the story received more attention when
<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/world/middleeast/champion-of-coexistence-felled-by-its-failure-is-buried-in-israel.html?_r=0">Richard
Lakin</a>, 76, became the third person to die of
wounds inflicted on the bus, in addition to Alon
Govberg, 51, and Haviv Haim, 78. Lakin, originally from
Connecticut and a noted advocate for Israeli and
Palestinian coexistence, was visited, as he lay in a
hospital, by a stream of newsmakers, including New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio and UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h3>"The Israelis have imposed collective punishment on us
in many ways."</h3>
<p>A few months ago, I would have read this news story and
filed it among a growing list of tragic events that
continually occur in the occupied territories. But my
understanding of this story shifted this March, when I
was part of a delegation of 19 activists from the United
States to the West Bank and Israel. There, I saw
firsthand that the supposedly "objective" articles I had
read about the situation in Palestine had given me a
morally disabling sense of balance.</p>
<p><span class="wf_caption"><span></span></span>I visited
a 92-year-old Palestinian <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/23/east-jerusalem-land-palestine-papers">woman</a>
in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. She was
breathing through an oxygen tube, lying in bed in one
half of her house -- the other half had been confiscated
by Israel and was now occupied by Jewish settlers. I saw
Palestinian teenage boys, sitting in the box at <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/35673-we-stand-with-palestine-in-the-spirit-of-sumud-the-us-prisoner-labor-and-academic-solidarity-delegation-to-palestine">military
tribunals</a> (Israelis are tried in civil courts),
being prosecuted with video evidence -- not of an actual
crime scene, but of a reenactment made by the Israeli
military, based on a "confession" that might have taken
weeks to obtain, most likely through torture. I listened
to people who had spent decades in Israeli prisons, who
had lost land, houses and loved ones. And late in the
afternoon of March 26, in the Jabel Mukaber district of
Jerusalem, I met Bahaa Allyan's father.</p>
<p>Muhammad Allyan spoke to our delegation in a house
adjacent to a rubble-filled pit that used to be his
family's home. Long before this trip, I'd read of the
Israeli government bulldozing or pumping cement into the
houses of the families of Palestinians <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/israel-destroys-homes-alleged-palestinian-attackers-151114094136625.html">accused
of attacking</a> Israelis, <a target="_blank"
href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oChc0pAJ1HYC&pg=PA68#v=onepage&q&f=false">throwing
stones</a> or "illegally" <a target="_blank"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/when-israels-bulldozers-escape-our-attention/15766">building
houses</a>. But losing their home wasn't all that
happened to the Allyans.</p>
<p>Islamic, like Judaic law, asks the observant to bury
their dead within <a target="_blank"
href="http://moderatemuslimvoices.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-muslims-bury-within-24-hours.html">24
hours</a> of death. All too aware of this, the Israeli
government has frozen the body of Bahaa Allyan and is
refusing to return it or allow an autopsy that might
reveal the cause of death.</p>
<p><span class="wf_caption"><span></span></span>This is an
old form of Israeli reprisal. Although some Palestinian
bodies have remained frozen since the attack on <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/01/05/462037563/israels-return-of-palestinian-bodies-is-fraught-with-emotion-and-politics">Gaza
of 2008-09</a>, the Israeli government had relaxed
this policy until last October, when it again began <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/sites/almonitor/contents/afp/2016/01/israel-palestinians-conflict-bodies-rights.html">freezing
the corpses</a> of dozens of accused Palestinian
attackers -- mostly teenagers or men and women in their
20s. In recent months, the government has allowed some
bodies to be returned, but because it fears big,
dangerously political demonstrations, families must <a
target="_blank"
href="https://news.vice.com/article/discreet-funeral-and-no-autopsy-israel-places-strict-conditions-on-return-of-palestinian-attackers-bodies">agree
to bury</a> their dead late at night, while the corpse
is still frozen, and limit the number of people at the
funeral.</p>
<p>Muhammad Allyan, who has become an <a target="_blank"
href="https://roarmag.org/essays/israel-witholding-palestinian-martyrs-bodies/">activist</a>
for Palestinian families seeking the return of their
children's bodies, listened to the members of the US
delegation introduce ourselves: academics, prison
abolitionists, people who had done US prison time for
political as well as "criminal" acts. An 81-year-old
ex-Black Panther who remembered a Black child burned to
death in the 1950s South; a Japanese-American mother and
educator who lives with the legacy of her family's years
in a US concentration camp ... After we introduced
ourselves, Muhammad Allyan, through interpreter Rabab
Abdulhadi, began to speak:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I'm a lawyer and a writer. I write short stories and
essays. I will share my experience with you. Maybe it
will be difficult, but I think you will understand,
given the struggles in which you are involved.</p>
<p>There are two experiences I do not wish on you or
anyone. I am the father of a martyr, and my house has
been demolished.</p>
<p>On October 13, 2015, I was called by the Israeli
intelligence services and told, "Your son was killed."</p>
<p>Why was he killed? They claimed it was because he had
tried to stab and shoot on the bus. As a lawyer, I
asked for proof. Evidence that it was my son who had
done this. I also asked to see his body, and I was
denied that right. They have not presented me with any
proof that he did what they say he did. Until now,
Israel refuses to publish any kind of details about
what happened.</p>
<p>According to international law, to the United
Nations, to all the laws we know, you are responsible
for an act that you as an individual commit. Let's
suppose, just hypothetically, that my son did what
they said he did. He stabbed and he was killed, which
means he has received his punishment, legally
speaking.</p>
<p>Then why are his father, his mother, his grandmother,
his grandfather, his young siblings -- why are they
being punished?</p>
<p>The Israelis have imposed collective punishment on us
in many ways. First, they basically kidnap and hold
under siege the body of our son. Since October 13
until now, six months later, they refuse to release
him. Second, they demolish the homes -- our home that
has the memories of love, of pain, of happiness, of
all the things that have happened among us. The third
is they are threatening to deport us to Gaza or to
Syria. They think, wrongly, that collective punishment
is going to affect the struggle [of] Palestinians for
their freedom. We'll stop resistance when the
occupation ends, not through collective punishment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>The Withholding of Palestinian Bodies</strong></p>
<p>Muhammad Allyan described waiting months for Israeli
intelligence to call and tell him to come get the body
of his son. He explained that, even when bodies are
released, families must agree -- in addition to
consenting to late-night burials and limiting the number
of attendees -- not to take photos and to pay a
20,000-shekel deposit (over $5,200) to guarantee they
will not violate burial conditions. Even if those
conditions are met, Allyan said, the money is never
returned. He went on to describe the relentless pall
that comes with knowing your child's body lies frozen in
the hands of those who execrate it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A week ago I saw something I would have taken for
granted before but now I see differently. I saw a
little cat carrying its dead baby. It was digging the
ground and burying it. I thought to myself, even the
animal would like to bury its dead children. What
about people?</p>
<p>It's been six months we've been struggling --
legally, in the media, internationally, and on the
grassroots level -- for the liberation of the bodies
of our children who are held in the refrigerators. We
do not know what this extreme cold temperature does to
the body. It may destroy the organs; it may destroy
the corpse itself. What is the guarantee that the body
has not disintegrated? This is a body with bullets in
it, embedded in a block of ice.</p>
<p>There is no stability. We are exhausted and concerned
and worry at night. All we want is to meet death in
the face. We, as Muslims and as humans, cannot face
death until we see the body, at the funeral. To say
goodbye. We are still waiting, in a continuous state
of accepting condolences.</p>
<p>What are they gaining from holding the bodies of
children?</p>
<p>Earlier today, I told a delegation of American
psychiatrists that I believe it was actually
psychiatrists that have advised the Israeli military
to inflict this kind of pain on the Palestinian
people. Because this is systemic. It's well studied
and planned. And Israel insists on using it despite
all the <a target="_blank"
href="http://www.civiccoalition-jerusalem.org/system/files/documents/right_to_bodies_statement_-_dec_12.2015.pdf">measures</a>
from international and local communities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Autopsies</strong></p>
<p>In order to issue a proper complaint to the Israeli
Supreme Court, Allyan continued, an autopsy is
necessary. However, the Israeli government bars families
of accused Palestinians from obtaining autopsies. So the
truth, he said, can be buried even though the body
cannot. And the suffering continues even when the
Israelis do release a body.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The state of the corpse is indescribable. This is
really so hurtful. Imagine the body in a block of ice.
If his hands are like this, [<em>Allyan raises his
arms away from his body, showing clawed fingers</em>]
they stay like this. You cannot fold them; you cannot
put anything in them. We cannot even put them in the
grave. We cannot put the arms like this [<em>holding
his arms at his sides</em>], according to Islamic
law. And usually they demand that you bury within an
hour and a half.</p>
<p>We, the families of the young kids who are kidnapped,
went to agencies, including the International
Committee of the Red Cross. We have asked for a
neutral, international fact-finding mission to look at
the bodies. And we wanted them to dissolve the ice
before they give the bodies back. Now we have a <a
target="_blank"
href="http://english.pnn.ps/2016/04/12/palestinian-families-demanding-israel-to-return-detained-martyr-bodies/">case</a>
in the Supreme Court. But from my experience, the
Israeli High Court is not going to make a decision
that would contradict Israeli intelligence.</p>
<p>Two days ago, we issued a public appeal to the
Palestinian Authority to demand that we receive the
bodies of our children. We were not as concerned about
the destruction of our homes. We said that the house
is not more important than the body.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Respect for an Occupied People</strong></p>
<p>Even in the face of immense grief, Palestinians bear
the injury of being thought of as less than human. The
Israeli narrative, Muhammad Allyan reflected, claims
that Palestinians are terrorists:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Western media do not want to hear that there is a
Palestinian reality. When I receive international
reporters, they tell me, "It was your son who
murdered." I say I do not know if he killed anybody.
We do not have any proof that he did.</p>
<p>You have to understand that it is not enough to cry
when an Israeli is killed. You have to understand that
we are an occupied people. We are dying. Our land is
being confiscated. Our homes are being demolished. At
the same time we're accused of being terrorists. Even
when there's a war situation, there is supposed to be
values and standards. There is supposed to be respect
for occupied people.</p>
<p>What is it that allows an Israeli soldier to shoot a
child? And let them bleed to death without doing
anything? Imagine a heavily armed military saying it's
defending itself against a child, who is maybe
carrying a knife or scissors or a little sharpened
pencil. This child is seen as a terrorist. These
truths do not reach you.</p>
<p>My son was beautiful. He was an artist. Bahaa was
educated, well read, engaged with other <a
target="_blank"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-scout-leader-became-martyr/14943">Palestinian
youth</a>. He created the longest reading circle in
the world around the walls of Jerusalem's Old City; it
actually entered the <em><a target="_blank"
href="https://www.gramhelix.com/media/677521033584771022_1012477878">Guinness
Book of Records</a></em>. So, if he did this
stabbing, why? Perhaps that question should be posed
to the Israelis.</p>
<p>When Bahaa used to go from home to work, he saw the
checkpoints. He saw children being killed; he saw
women being beaten up; he saw the cement blocks that
shut down the streets; he saw young people, naked,
being searched. Bahaa could not bear seeing these
daily occurrences. And we as a generation of leaders
did not provide a solution. Bahaa gave his life for
what he believed in. But there are a thousand ways
people can model after him without endangering
themselves. I don't want his friends to die.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A couple of weeks later, I'm home in New York City.
TIME magazine has, by now, <a target="_blank"
href="http://time.com/4075829/palestinians-violence-terrorism-israel/">revised</a> its
October 2015 story to read that Bahaa Allyan "killed two
passengers in an attack on a Jerusalem bus." I'm sitting
in a coffee bar in Greenwich Village, while Amin Husain,
a Palestinian filmmaker, tries to explain things I still
have trouble grasping. The word "martyr," for instance,
Husain says, is someone who is a witness to oppression.
Husain, who is from a Palestinian village where five
Israeli settlements surround his house, is working on a
film called <em><a target="_blank"
href="http://www.thecomingintifada.org/">The Coming
Intifada</a></em>.</p>
<p>He talks about what it means for a Palestinian to come
at an Israeli with a knife or a gun or a pair of
scissors, for innocent civilians to be killed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most of these Palestinians have lost brothers and
sisters. They have family in prison. They have no
future. They live with a system trying to take away
their dignity. It's the same as you saw in Ferguson.
The Ferguson rebellion was by people who were being
killed, fighting to reclaim their dignity.</p>
<p>Israel is notorious for using a web of law, language,
logic, media, perceptions. Their project is one of
dehumanization. That's why there's a link to Black
Lives Matter. Palestinian lives under Israeli rule
don't matter. And not mattering, Palestinians are just
a PR problem. How do you deal with a PR problem? You
tell people they want to die for no reason. You say
they kill innocent people. Who is <em>innocent</em>
in all this?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span></span>And now, on <span
data-term="goog_221103378" tabindex="0">May 5, 2016</span>,
at the Israeli Supreme Court, the State Attorney's
Office announced that authorities would begin making
preparations for the "<a target="_blank"
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.718032">gradual
handover</a>" of nine of the at least <a
target="_blank"
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=771409">19
Palestinian bodies</a> still held by the government,
as long as government demands are met and funeral rites
do not "glorify" the names of the dead. At the time of
this writing, it is unclear if Bahaa Allyan's body is
one of them.</p>
<p><em>Note: Laura Whitehorn offered invaluable support
and help on this article.</em></p>
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